The present disclosure generally relates to the field of electronics. More particularly, some embodiments of the invention relate to per die temperature programming that may provide thermally efficient integrated circuit (IC) operation.
As integrated circuit fabrication technology improves, manufacturers are able to integrate additional functionality onto a single silicon substrate. As the number of these functionalities increases, however, so does the number of components on a single IC chip. Additional components add additional signal switching, in turn, generating more heat. The additional heat may damage an IC chip by, for example, thermal expansion. Also, the additional heat may limit usage locations and/or applications of a computing device that includes such chips. To limit damage resulting from higher temperatures, some implementations are designed for the worse case scenario. For example, clock frequency may be lowered to generate less heat. This approach, however, may result in lower performance.